Vermin on Cargo Docks (2016 version)
by C Clark
Summary: When nothing interesting has happened for the Torchwood team, how will they react when something new has escaped through the rift, and with what looks like a chain of strange serial murders with never-seen-before circumstances, will they work out what is causing them?
1. Chapter 1

Matthew Humphries hated the night shift. The blackness of the sky and the silence of the factory made him wish that he was home with his wife—his wife who was six months pregnant—instead of plastering the walls of a derelict factory in the cold.

There was nothing interesting to do at night. Matthew was a builder, and he was working on the reconstruction of the old shipping factory. He'd offered to take a few night shifts for some extra cash—every penny was important to him, especially with a baby on the way. Fortunately he worked with a colleague and although he didn't like him very much, it was marginally better than having no company at all.

At 6am, Matthew saw the first sign of sunrise and his phone alarm vibrated in his pocket to tell him that his shift was over. _Thank god,_ he thought while he carried out his regular routine of packing away his plaster bucket and various tools into the boot of his car. He sighed as he climbed into the car and turned on the engine, driving away and leaving the horrible factory behind him for another day.

Now it was time to go and sleep and prepare for the following evening, when he'd be doing exactly the same thing for what felt like the four-hundredth time. He was dreading it—the silence and the eeriness of the desolate, isolated factory—because he knew that it would just be a boring repeat of the same thing he'd already been doing for weeks.

Oh, how wrong he was.

 **Chapter One**

Jack was tired. He sat on the old sofa in his office, his eyes staring at the blank floor, silently thinking. For the past two weeks nothing had been happening – nothing at all – and soon watching TV and eating Chinese food day in, day out became so boring that it seemed to wear him out so much faster than when he was working. He was Captain Jack Harkness for goodness' sake, and his life was beginning to be stuck in a rut.

He felt a bit lonely, too; not only because his immortality meant that his friends and past lovers from decades ago grew old and passed away while Jack remained a young man, but because his boyfriend—lover? Partner? He wasn't quite sure what to call him—was upset after Jack had turned down a romantic date that had taken hours to plan and arrange, and his only excuse for declining the night out was that he was "too busy". Lately, he just felt as if he wanted no contact with anyone. Sometimes, being alive forever whilst watching people close to him age depressed him so much that all he wanted to do was hide away. Now he came to think about it, he missed his coffee boy.

Somehow, today, it was as if Ianto sensed his loneliness. There was a soft knock on Jack's office door and he stepped inside. The quiet click of the door as it shut made Jack look up. He couldn't help his eyes sparkle when he saw Ianto, the man he'd missed so much, wearing one of the black pinstriped suits that Jack loved. He stood awkwardly with his hands in his trousers pockets, and he looked directly as Jack. He went to step forward, but hesitated and stayed still at the door.

"Jack," Ianto said quietly and calmly in his soothing Welsh lilt, nodding once.

"Ianto—finally decided to come and see me, then."

"I couldn't wait any longer, sir," he replied with a hint of a smile, "Plus, I bought you coffee – Starbucks, it's bloody expensive. It would be a waste if it went cold." Ianto gently put the cardboard cup on the small table in the centre of the room. As he began to move his hand away, Jack stopped him by resting a hand on his. Ianto looked across at him, their faces closer than before. Jack looked great—no, more than that—Jack looked beautiful, his eyes shining, his hair flat on his head with his lack of effort to style it. Ianto stood up straight again, Jack still looking intently at him.

"Come and sit down." Jack tapped on the seat next to him on the sofa with his free hand whilst gently pulling Ianto's hand with the other. Ianto obeyed and sat down next to Jack. They still hadn't left each other's gaze and Ianto was beginning to felt uncomfortable, so he looked down towards the floor. This movement broke Jack's eye contact and he smiled. He definitely hadn't forgotten how handsome Ianto was.

"Sorry," Jack said gently, "Are your eyes a maze? Because I just got lost in 'em," Jack joked, flirtatiously as usual. Ianto looked mock-appalled, shaking his head.

"That's rubbish," Ianto teased, as he felt Jack put a hand on his knee. He glanced at Jack's hand and back up to his face.

"You love it really."

"Of course. Anyway, Jack, I…"

"You're going to apologise for overreacting and that you want to be forgiven."

"Well, yes, you took the words out of my mouth, sir," Ianto replied as Jack slowly moved one thumb back and forth on his knee, "but please remember than it was you who turned me down for a date after I made a hell of an effort to sort it out. You've got to understand why I felt a bit… annoyed. Disappointed."

A pang of guilt shot across Jack's face. "Yeah, uh… I'm sorry about that. I just wasn't in the right mood. This is sort of a date though, huh?" he joked again, still smiling.

"A date in an office. Romantic!" Ianto laughed.

"Hey you," Jack said, tapping the tip of Ianto's noise with one finger, "some of the best things happen in an office." Ianto wasn't sure whether that was supposed to be an innuendo... but knowing Jack, is probably was.

Jack winked and moved his face closer to Ianto's. Ianto shot back a half smile and put his hands on Jack's arms as Jack kissed his forehead, and then moved to his lips. He'd been waiting to do that for almost a week. Ianto moved his hands from Jack's arms and placed them gently either side of his face. He returned his kiss, still smiling at the same time. Getting intimate with Jack was something that he'd only just realised how much he'd missed. He wanted to moment to last forever.

Suddenly, as Jack moved his hands towards Ianto's shirt collar to pull off his tie, the door swung open with a jolt and Tosh rushed in with a beaming smile. She was reading from a sheet of paper that she held in her hands.

"We have rift activity, something we've been waiting for. First big reading in two weeks, and it really does seem important; it covers a one-mile radius, that's much bigger than usual readings," Tosh babbled. She looked up from her paper and blushed. "Oh, sorry… am I interrupting something?" she said apologetically, turning to leave the office to leave them alone.

"We, uh…" Ianto stuttered as he fumbled to sit upright and refasten the top button of his shirt. He and Jack pulled away from each other, and Ianto pushed his tie back into place.

"Looks like we got a bit carried away," Jack said, winking at Ianto again, "It's 11:30pm, I didn't think you'd still be here."

"I've got nothing else to do, figured I might as well stay here. Good job we did, eh? Anyway, doesn't matter. I see you two made up. Ianto's been planning on it for two days but couldn't think of what to say. But I can see he did just fine," Tosh babbled again. Tosh didn't usually speak this much; either she was excited about the new rift discovery, embarrassed about walking in on Jack and Ianto, or she'd had too much coffee. Any of them were likely.

"Yeah, he did great," Jack replied with a smile, before quickly kissing Ianto's forehead again, jumping up off the sofa and dashing over to Tosh. He put his hands on each of her shoulders and shot a beaming smile at her. It was as if Ianto's arrival ten minutes ago brought a spark of life back into him again—something that had been missing for the past couple of weeks.

"Thanks Toshiko, you're a star. We've actually got something to do!" He kissed Tosh's forehead, removed his hands from her shoulders and jumped to the side of her. He dashed out of the door, bounding down the steps towards the rift-tracking device, where Owen was waiting.

Ianto remained on the sofa with a look of bewilderment on his face. He looked at the untouched cup of coffee on the table and sighed. He was used to Jack darting off at any random moment. He was like a puppy—when he was happy he couldn't stay still for more than a few seconds, but when he was unhappy, he would cower away in a corner until someone gave him some fuss and attention. One part of him liked his enthusiasm and excitement, but another part of him disliked him ruining their first moment of intimacy in almost a week. But it was his job, what he had to do, and more importantly, what he _loved_ to do. Most people's hobbies consisted of simple things such as horse riding or reading books or stamp collecting. Jack's however, consisted of saving the lives of people from extra-terrestrial creatures or people from thousands of years ago, who happened to escaped through a rift through the centre of Cardiff.

Gwen loved Monday mornings. She was aware that Monday mornings weren't generally seen as the best day of the week for most people, but for Gwen, it was her only day off from the insane, non-stop world of Torchwood. This was a plus for Rhys, her husband, too—although he usually had to leave for work at 9am, he could still wake up next to his wife and cook her breakfast, instead of waking up to discover that she has already left for work two hours earlier.

She awoke around 10:30am. She could vaguely remember being woken up by Rhys at 8:30 to tell her that his boss and co-worker had phoned in sick so it was pointless him going into work on his own, but she must have fallen asleep again straight after. She was glad; she needed as much sleep that she could get with her job.

The sunlight streamed though the partly open blinds when she awoke, warming her insides. The duvet had been rested gently over the top of her, and she could smell the gorgeous aroma of pancakes coming from the kitchen downstairs. She was surprised not to be woken up by Rhys shouting and swearing as he attempted to flip the pancakes in the pan – something that he didn't usually manage to do successfully.

Gwen stretched and sat up slowly. She got dressed into what she considered her 'slouching around the house' clothes—black jeans, red t-shirt and bunny slippers that she had from Rhys for her Birthday last year—and made her way into the kitchen. Rhys looked in her direction and gave her a big smile.

"Morning love, I left you asleep as long as possible, what with that job keeping you up till all hours," Rhys said as he tipped a pancake out onto a plate. He handed the plate to Gwen along with the bottle of syrup, but Gwen put it back down onto the kitchen counter. She smiled back at Rhys and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

"Thanks, really appreciate it," she beamed, pulling away and kissing him for a second or two. Rhys snaked his arms around Gwen's waist and kissed her back.

"No problem at all. You looked so shattered yesterday, thought I would cook for you. You'll probably choke and die as soon as you bite into it, but it's the thought that counts."

"Shut up, it's probably fine. You've made pancakes before and we're both still alive, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I suppose we are!" Rhys laughed, "I love you."

"Love you too. Come on, they'll be cold."

Gwen and Rhys picked up their plates and the syrup bottle and sauntered to the kitchen table together. Gwen noticed that the cutlery, lemon juice and a bowl of sugar were already laid out on the table, and she smiled a beaming smile again.

"So. What'd you want to do today? We've got the whole day," Rhys asked, taking a bite of a pancake.

"Don't know, really… we could go to the bay, just have wander?"

"Mm… too close to home. I fancy going somewhere different for a change."

"We could go to Barry or Porthcawl, sit on the beach, If you fancy a beach day? I heard the weather's meant to be alright down Barry way."

"Yeah, could do…" Gwen half-heartedly agreed.

"You don't sound too convinced."

"You know, I was just thinking that we could spend a day at home. Watch a film or something, have an early night." Gwen looked Rhys in the eyes and shot him a half smile.

"Oh, yeah, could do, if that's what you fancy doing. Sounds nice."

Their small-talk conversation went on for the duration of their breakfast, and when they finished, they held hands over the table and talked some more. They hadn't had chance to just sit and talk for a while and they both enjoyed it. It was a shame they both had to go back to work in the morning.

The next few hours were spent sitting in the lounge with popcorn and a box of chocolates, watching endless rom-coms on the TV. Gwen made Rhys promise not to moan, and promised that he could choose the next film. She sent Rhys out to the nearest shop after the first film finished to buy some alcohol and he came back with as much cheap wine and beer as he could get with £20. Money was a bit tight recently so they couldn't afford to be extravagant, but they made the most of it.

After the second movie of the day, Rhys said "What do you want to do tonight?"

"Don't know, what are you thinking?" Gwen replied. She had her head resting on Rhys's chest, and she lifted herself up to look at him while she spoke.

"Well, seeing as you're usually working late, I thought I'd take you out somewhere for a meal. Anywhere you want, and I'll pay."

"Sounds good to me," Gwen said quietly as she kissed Rhys. He gently ran his fingers through her hair as he returned it, and softly traced patterns on her back. Gwen laid her head back down onto his chest. It was only 4pm, and Gwen was falling asleep already.

The next thing she heard was Rhys saying her name quietly and running his hands through her hair again. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times, adjusting to the light of the room.

"What happened?" Gwen mumbled as she looked around the room and then back at Rhys.

"You fell asleep, love. You must be tired." Rhys told her. He reached across to the coffee table and picked up a mug. "I made you a cuppa."

"Oh, thanks love. Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I didn't want to. You looked so shattered; I thought I'd leave you where you were."

"What's the time? How long was I asleep?" Gwen asked. She yawned, sat up with her feet up on the sofa, stretched, and pulled a brown fluffy blanket over her legs. Rhys must have put it there when she fell asleep. She shivered, and Rhys put his arm around her waist.

"About an hour or so? It's five o'clock," Rhys replied, kissing Gwen's forehead. Gwen wrapped herself Rhys and tightly hugged him. "Are we still going out tonight? I quite fancy a steak, myself, and I'm too lazy to cook," he asked.

"Yep, definitely! What time shall we go?"

"Soon? If we go and get ready, we could be out by six, then we could aim to be back by about nine and have an early night." Gwen nodded in approval and smiled.

An hour or so later, Gwen and Rhys were ready to go. They decided to go to a place called Giovanni's in Cardiff City Centre. Rhys had been sitting in the lounge waiting for Gwen for about fifteen minutes. This usually happened when they went out somewhere—why did females take twice as long as males to get ready?

Rhys took back his thoughts, however, when Gwen came back into the lounge. She wore a black dress that came just below her knees, and her hair was styled perfectly into tight curls. She finished off the outfit with four-inch stiletto heels, and she made walking in them look easy.

"You're perfect," Rhys said with a dazed grin. "How can an ugly mug like me manage to marry someone as beautiful as you, Miss Cooper?"

"Shut up. You're gorgeous," she said as Rhys pulled a face. "Let's get going, muppet."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Jack and Tosh made their way down to the centre of the Hub, towards the screen displaying the new rift reading, and where Owen was waiting. As soon as he heard footsteps behind him, he turned abruptly in his swivel chair and grinned.

"Alright Jack!" Owen shouted, obviously in a good mood, "How's it going?"

"Great! What put you in such a good mood?" Jack replied.

"Ah, nothin' much; just the fact that for two weeks we've been sat here with bugger all to do, and now something's finally decided to happen!" Owen bellowed excitedly.

Jack smiled and raced over in four long strides to the computer screen. He peered closely at the satellite view of Cardiff and hit a button to zoom in closer towards the source of the rift reading. A pulsating red dot appeared over what looked like a harbour or an embankment.

"That looks like some sort of river bank?" Tosh guessed, leaning in closer to the screen.

"Cargo Docks, about ten minutes away from here by car. Never really had a problem with docks before… could be interesting, but first, we've gotta find the problem," Jack informed Owen and Tosh.

"Cargo Docks? My mate Matthew works there, will he be alright?" Ianto chipped in from behind the group, making them all turn around to look at him.

"Don't worry about it right now. We don't know what's come through the rift yet; it could just be another weevil—if so, he should be alright if he's sensible—or could be something completely harmless," Jack assured him. Nevertheless, Ianto still looked worried. "Tosh, check the exact coordinates. Try and find people we can contact, people who work at the docks, and people who live close by. See if there are any sightings of anything out of the ordinary or unusual. Owen, you… you find something to do. Ianto, get in contact with your friend who works at the docks, see if he's seen anything himself, and keep looking great. I'll text Gwen."

And with that, Jack grabbed a phone from the desk nearest him and ran back up the steps towards his office, taking two steps at a time. It was clear by how quickly he moved how much of a thrill he got from working, especially seeing as this was the first time he'd left his office in two weeks. Ianto thanked himself for that.

* * *

After the meal, in which Rhys had his long awaited 8oz steak, Gwen had lasagne and they both shared a giant both of profiteroles with ice cream, they walked together to the taxi rank hand in hand. It was a long walk from Giovanni's to the car park, and felt longer with stomachs full of food and Gwen's four-inch heels. Gwen tripped over a few times; partly because of her shoes on the uneven floor, but mainly because of the wine that Rhys kept buying her throughout their meal.

She giggled uncontrollably as she almost fell twice, and Rhys pulled her upright by putting his free arm around her waist to steady her. His other hand was occupied by Gwen's bag which was somehow thrust upon him when they left the restaurant. Rhys didn't drink as much, but it'd been enough to make him feel lightheaded and giggly. Also, for Rhys, this meant his voice was double the volume as usual, and his strong Welsh accent seemed even stronger.

"Have you phoned a taxi?" Gwen asked Rhys as they walked.

"No, did you hear me phoning for one?"

"Uh… no. Ha!"

"Muppet!"

"Phone for one now then!" Rhys felt in his pockets for his phone and looked confused.

"I didn't bring my phone. I'm sure I put it in my pocket…" he slurred in a daze.

"I'm sure you did, Rhys-y boy. I'll phone it, see if you have it."

"I haven't got it." Gwen managed to dial Rhys's number, and a phone vibrated in his pocket. Gwen and Rhys collapsed laughing. "It was in your pocket, you idiot!" Gwen shouted, wiping tears away from her eyes. They were getting odd stares from passersby, whilst others just rolled their eyes. It was not unusual to see people stumbling drunk through Cardiff City Centre.

When the taxi arrived they threw themselves into back seat with their hands locked together, and when the driver asked for £7.50 for the taxi fair, Rhys spent thirty seconds trying to count out the correct change. Gwen snatched the wallet out of his hand, handed over a ten-pound note, took the change and threw his wallet back to him, shaking her head.

"Wait there a second," Rhys told Gwen when she started to get out of the car. Rhys clambered out of his side, slammed the door with a slurred "Thanks, mate!", and ran to the other side. He reached down and lifted Gwen out of her seat to carry her into the house. Gwen screeched.

"What are you doing? I'm surprised you can lift me with your weak arms!"

"Weak arms? Cheeky bitch!" Rhys lowered his head and kissed her while Gwen reached into her bag and found her door key, taking three attempts to fit the key into the lock.

When the door was finally open, Rhys carried Gwen into the house and slammed the door shut. They went straight upstairs and into their bedroom. He put her down onto the bed, took off her cardigan and tossed it to one side, before taking off his own jacket. She un-looped his belt and slid it off. She still had her bag to one side of her, leaning against her hip and as she fiddled with Rhys' shirt buttons, her phone jumped into life. She reached for it with her free hand, and stopped kissing Rhys to click it open and read the new message. The text was from a blocked number, which meant that it could only be from one person.

TORCHWOOD. VERY IMPORTANT. COME PRONTO. JH xxx

"Shit!" Gwen shouted. She quickly typed a message back:

WHY NOW? DAY OFF. SEE YOU TOMORROW. GC.

Almost straight after she pressed send, her phone vibrated again with a reply. Rhys sighed impatiently as she read it.

VERY IMPORTANT. COME PRONTO. JH xxx

"Why now, Jack? Damn you!" She shouted again. "The bastard wants me to go to work this late on my day off!"

Rhys sighed again. The happiness that lit up his face a minute ago faded away and was replaced with disappointment. He sunk down onto the bed next to Gwen and stared at the ceiling. Gwen bit her lip and put her hand on Rhys's chest.

"Please don't be angry with me, Rhys. I'm sorry. I really am. It's just that with my job, I don't really have much control over when I work. I can be called in at any random moment, whenever something comes up, and…"

"What the hell do you do, Gwen? Why don't I have a single clue what you do for a living? I should be the first to be told, and I still don't know what you do! I don't even know where you disappear to at seven every morning when you tell me you're going to work!" He argued, increasing in volume.

"Rhys, please, I… it's not really my right to tell anyone about my job…"

"Not even your bloody fiancé? Do you know how unwanted and cast out that makes me feel, Gwen?"

"You're not unwanted, not in the slightest! It's just… I wish I could tell you, I really wish I could, but I can't! You don't know how hard it is for me, and how selfish it makes me feel not telling you, but it's not my right. Maybe you will find out, maybe one day, but for now, it's better for you not to be involved. It's probably much safer. I want to keep you safe Rhys, and that's why I can't let you get involved. I love you so much, it would kill me if you got hurt because of my job." Rhys lay still. He breathed in and exhaled heavily. There was a long silence.

"Well, my sex mood has disappeared now," Rhys said blankly. A smile spread across Gwen's face and she couldn't help but laugh. She gripped his hand tightly.

"I really do love you."

"I love you too. Go to work, I don't want you getting fired," he replied, defeated.

"Thanks Rhys," Gwen said, kissing him quickly.

She grabbed her phone and sent a text to Jack—"COMING NOW, 10 MINS. HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY. GC."—and sat up. Her head spun from the alcohol as she got changed into her jeans and t-shirt, put on her boots and coat and stumbled down the stairs. Rhys followed her and kissed her goodbye before she ran out of the door to catch a taxi on the main road. Rhys slumped onto the sofa in the lounge, turned on the TV, and wondered why nothing ever went right.

* * *

Gwen burst in through the sliding doors of the Torchwood Hub fifteen minutes later with her bag under her arm. Tosh and Owen looked up when the sirens sounded. The sirens always went off when the main door was opened; it was just part of Torchwood's hi-tech security system. Gwen hated it. She swore loudly as she walked in – her excitement had disappeared long ago, and it had been replaced with pure, boiling anger. She walked over to a table and threw down her bag. She didn't really have a justified reason to be angry—apart from the fact that Jack interrupted her at the time when she least wanted to be interrupted—but it was probably the alcohol getting to her.

"In a bit of a bad mood, are we?" Owen teased, swinging in his chair. Gwen glared at him, strong enough to burn through stone. He held both of his hands up and swung back around to face the desk with his usual smug grin. Jack appeared on the stairs leading up to his office, and he waved at Gwen once.

"Hey there! I had to call you in quickly. Rift reading, big one," Jack told her in heavy American accent. He didn't really speak loudly, but however loud he spoke, his voice seemed to travel across the whole of the Hub. Gwen jumped and looked up at him.

"Jesus, Jack, could you at least give me some warning before you shout? And you couldn't just let me have one night off, could you? Just because you practically live here and you have no life outside of work, it doesn't mean…" As Gwen continued to rant on at Jack, he rolled his eyes and went to see Tosh at the rift-tracking device. Gwen's rant turned into a slurred mess of meaningless words, like she wasn't even thinking as she spoke. Owen raised his eyebrows as the words tumbled out of her mouth and Tosh smirked, trying to hold back a chuckle.

Soon, it was as if Gwen's brain registered that all she was saying was a mess of pointless insults, so she shut up and looked at the others. She put a hand on her head and sunk down into the nearest chair. Her hands covered her face and she sighed, closing her eyes. Lifting her head up slowly to face the others, she mumbled, "Sorry about that. I went out with Rhys and I… well, let's just say I had quite a lot to drink."

"I can tell, doesn't take a genius to figure that out. How much?" Owen asked, looking at her from where he was sitting at his desk.

"Uh… two or three bottles of Rosé?"

"Thought it was Rosé, I can smell it on you."

"Excuse me, rude! I don't smell that bad… do I?"

"Darlin', you smell like a brewery. I could smell you as you came through the door," Owen smirked as he turned around the type something on the computer. Gwen couldn't see the screen properly, the glare made her feel sicker than she already felt.

"Hey, shut it, you," she replied, struggling not to smile, "before I come over and slap you!"

"Come at me then!" Owen looked at her again, both arms held out straight at his sides.

"Stop arguing, flirting, whatever you want to call it. We've got serious work to do," Jack interrupted. "Tosh and Ianto have contacted people and there's been no unusual sightings yet, which sort of draws out weevils seeing as their not exactly hard to distinguish. We'll need to get out to the docks ASAP."

"Hang on, what? What docks?" Gwen asked, confused.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you only just arrived. Cargo Docks, not too far from here. Rift scanner picked up something new."

 _Oh great_ , Gwen thought, _I'd prefer just to go back to bed… why didn't I just say I was ill? Idiot! I feel sick…_ She launched herself out of her chair and ran to the bathroom whilst the others watched her. Owen looked amused, Tosh looked worried, Jack shook his head, and Ianto followed after her to see if she was okay. Maybe it would be a good idea to send her home instead of forcing her into a car driven at 85mph.

* * *

"Get off me!"

"I'm not even touching you!"

"Yes, you are."

"I'm not!"

"Shut up, the pair of you. You're like children!" Jack demanded from the front seat of the SUV. He was fed up with Gwen and Owen arguing every time they had to sit together in the back seat. Ianto and Tosh had just learned to put up with it.

"Anyway, how come you get to sit in the front seat all the time?" Owen asked Ianto, poking him hard in the shoulder. Since Jack and Ianto had made up two days ago, Ianto had jumped in next to Jack in the front seat of the car, even when they drove to collect their Chinese takeaway.

"Back to shagging the boss, I think!" Gwen grinned. Ianto looked back at her from the front seat with his eyes narrowed—which made them all laugh even more. He didn't deny anything, though. He smiled so that Gwen knew he took her comment as a joke. They all knew the truth—it was obvious what went on when Ianto disappeared to Jack's office.

It was a cold April morning, and Gwen wished she was in bed. According to the SUV's temperature gauge it was four degrees outside, and even wearing a coat and boots and sitting in between Owen and Tosh didn't increase her body temperature. Seeing as it was only 8am, she hoped it would warm up a bit… or maybe it was just her dreadful hangover making her shiver.

"Are we there yet? I'm going to be sick if we stay in this car for much longer," Gwen moaned. She seemed to be moaning a lot recently.

"No. Almost," Jack replied.

"Step on it, then. I just want to get there, see what shit we have to put up with and get the hell home."

"Somebody's not in a good mood again! Time of the month, is it?" Owen snapped sarcastically. Gwen responded with a heavy thump on the arm.

A few minutes and several argumentative comments later, Jack stopped the SUV and everyone got out to take in their surroundings. The rift-tracking device and the satellite navigation had taken them to a vast brown space, not far from the docks. There was no one else in sight, not even any workers. They guessed that there should have been some builders, seeing as the factory that loomed not far away in the distance looked half-finished.

Jack used another of his strange electronic devices to see if there was anyone around. The device told them if there was any life within a half-a-mile radius. Apart from themselves, there was no one—no one at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Here we go again, Matthew thought, driving away from the house at 7pm, yet another night shift. He was hoping that his life would improve soon—he really couldn't imagine himself working night shifts forever, especially seeing as his baby would be born soon.

The first couple of hours of work were fairly busy, but undoubtedly boring. His co-worker had phoned in sick again, so he was on his own. He plastered the walls and cleared some more of the floor. He lifted away a section of the wall, which was falling to pieces, and instantly shrieked. He darted away from the wall, his eyes wide, not quite sure what he'd seen—some kind of nest?

Whatever Matthew had found nesting in the broken down wall on level three definitely wasn't friendly, to say the least—but he didn't realise the potential danger until it was too late. He ran as fast as he could down the old wooden steps, not even worrying about them collapsing under his weight. There would have been silence if it wasn't for the thumping of his feet on the floor and his heavy breathing. Whatever was behind him, it didn't make a sound.

On the second level, Matthew turned around to see if he was safe and abruptly shrieked in pain as something hit him directly in the chest. He collapsed, breathless and wincing. He felt an odd tickling sensation underneath his skin... another twinge of pain as something seemed to be drilling into his heart... the life drain from him slowly and his eyes flickering closed...

And then there was nothing.

* * *

"There's no one here," Ianto said, peering over Jack's shoulder at the screen.

"Hmm, that is weird. Where're the builders, the people in boats?" he replied.

"We should go and have a look around, see if we can find anything," Gwen suggested, looking suspiciously at the open space around them. Jack nodded in agreement and led the team southwards, towards the old three-storey shipping factory in the distance. Although there were no signals on the scanner to tell them to go in that direction, Jack always seemed to sense where to go.

Once inside the desolate factory, Jack jolted to a stop and held his head up high, his eyes narrowed and his mouth tightly closed. He remained like this for five or six seconds, his only movements being the up-and-down of his chest when he breathed and the flickering of his pupils. He didn't even blink. He tended to do this a lot—whenever he sensed that something wasn't right, he would stop to figure out the exact location of the disturbance.

After the short silence he whirled into action again, firing up a set of rickety old wooden stairs. They didn't look safe at all, and anyone would have been scared to set foot on them. However, for Jack, if anything did happen to him—say, for instance, the stairs came crashing down and he were to fall through—he would heal pretty quickly. That was, Jack supposed, an advantage of being immortal.

The rest of the team remained on the bottom floor, guns and tranquillisers in hand for safety, and wondering if Jack was mad. They all knew the answer to that one – he probably was. They winced as they heard dangerous-sounding cracks and creaks of the precarious floorboards above them, and they were all ready to dive out of the way in fear of the ceiling collapsing at any given moment.

"Come up here. I've found something, and it's not good. It's quite small up here, so just one of you will do." Jack called from above. Gwen decided to brave the steps, gingerly placing her left foot on the first step while tapping the next step a few times with the right to test its sturdiness. She made it to the top of the stairs, breathing heavily. She continued walking across the second floor of the factory to see what Jack had found. When she saw it, she had to turn her head away again almost immediately—Jack was knelt down on the floor next to a body.

"Is he dead?" Gwen asked with her head still turned away. Jack continued to look at the body, seemingly not affected by it—or if he was, he did well not to show it. Gwen had only been on the Torchwood team for a short while, so she hadn't learnt to manage with these situations as well her other teammates had.

"Yeah."

"How?"

"Don't know."

"Well, did a creature do it?" Gwen asked.

"Not sure. Male, I'd say late twenties, maybe early thirties; about six feet tall, looks like a builder, he's wearing one of those hi-vis jackets."

"How bad is it?" Owen called from downstairs.

"There's a body. Gwen, I think you should come over a second. You're a police officer; you might know things I don't." She doubted it, but it was worth a try. She slowly turned her head and knelt down next to the body, the opposite side to Jack. She looked down at the man before her and her eyes narrowed. Jack had undone the zip of the man's safety jacket to reveal a small, bullet-like hole in the man's chest.

"Is there a wallet or anything? There may be some form of ID so we can find out who he is," Gwen asked.

Jack reached carefully into one of the pockets of the man's jeans, and pulled out a small leather wallet. "There's a driver's licence." He opened it up and slid out the licence, peering at the name written next to the man's photograph.

"What does it say?" Gwen asked as she came closer.

"Matthew Humphries, born 1982."

"Oh god, Jack, that's Ianto's friend."

"Yeah. I thought so."

"He hasn't been attacked by a weevil because there's no gashes or cuts to the face or body, so what the hell are we dealing with?" Gwen asked as she zipped the safety jacket back up again to protect the wound, for further inspection back at the Hub.

"I don't know. It's something I've never seen before," Jack replied, annoyed that he didn't know the answer. "The first thing we have to do though is to tell Ianto. That's going to be hard." Gwen looked up at Jack, and he looked genuinely upset that he'd have to tell Ianto that his friend was dead.

"Don't worry, I'll do it," Gwen told him, putting a hand on his arm. She knew she'd hate doing it as much as Jack—it was one of the worst things about being a police officer—but she knew it had to be done.

Gwen stood up and walked back towards the rickety steps, thinking about what she'd say to Ianto when she reached the bottom. She climbed down the steps carefully with Owen supporting her, and narrowed his eyes when he saw that she looked at Ianto with a worried expression.

"Ianto, I... I don't know how to say this, but..."

"What? What's the matter? Oh god, don't say..." Ianto replied, his eyes widening.

"I'm sorry..." Ianto's face crumpled as Gwen continued. "We found his driving licence. It's Matthew." Jack came quietly down the steps behind Gwen, his face solemn.

"Oh god, I knew it! I only saw him three days ago, we were really good mates! Oh god!" Ianto seemed to be stuck in between breaking down into tears and shock, a pained expression crossing his face. He brought one hand up to his face and squeezed the bridge of his nose, as if trying to stop himself from crying. He wanted to be strong in front of his colleagues, but he was finding it a struggle. Jack threw an arm around him and pulled him in, trying his best to calm him down. Ianto didn't pull away as he usually would have done with the others watching them; he stayed there, glad that he had Jack there for some comfort.

"What do we do now?" Gwen asked Owen quietly, while Jack whispers words of reassurance to Ianto, still holding him tightly.

"We take him back to the Hub and I can do an autopsy, see what I can find," Owen suggested. Jack ran his hand up and down Ianto's back once, and Ianto went to sit down on an abandoned barrel nearby. He looked down at the floor blankly, and Jack shot him a sympathetic half-smile.

"Yeah, let's do that. Gwen and Tosh, would you mind staying here and seeing what else you can find? I know we've had enough sadness for today, but it's our job and the sooner we can get it done, the better."

"That's fine, I don't mind," Tosh replied, always happy to help out. It was nice to be out of the Hub for a couple of hours.

"Ianto, you can come back with me and Owen if you want, unless you want to go home for a bit to get your head around things?"

Ianto replied faintly, still looking down at the ground, "I'd rather not be at home. I made that mistake when Lisa died,"—he paused, upset by the memory—"and I never wanted to come out. I'll come back with you."

He pulled himself together and stood up, striding back over towards Jack, who smiled sympathetically again as he passed. He paused by Tosh and Gwen—long enough to say "And don't you two go getting yourself into any trouble. I'm not losing anyone else today."—and went outside to wait in the car. He didn't like this factory; at the moment, the SUV was the only place he felt safe.

Back at the Hub, Owen and Jack lifted the body bag onto the surgery table in the autopsy room. Jack had left Ianto alone in his office with a coffee, a blanket and his infamous journal, to get his head around what has happened.

Owen put on a white lab coat, unzipped the body bag and slid it out from underneath the body. He undid the man's safety jacket and carefully cut his t-shirt from around the open wound. After the t-shirt was cut, he passed the knife to Jack to sterilise. Jack reached for a new knife and passed it over to Owen to cut open the wound.

"He's hasn't been dead long," Owen told Jack, "the wound still seems pretty fresh, and the body hasn't started degrading at all, by the look of him."

"Yeah. Also, have you noticed something?" Jack asked from the opposite side of the operating table while Owen cut around the edge of the wound. "There's a strange lack of blood."

"Hmm. Yeah, I did notice. Very strange. Draws out gunshot wound, there'd be blood everywhere if he was shot." Jack was inspecting the wound so intently that he jumped when his phone vibrated on the table across the room. He walked over to the table and lifted up the phone to see who was calling—it was Gwen.

"Hey Gwen, what's up? Yeah… yeah… okay. I'll be right there, stay exactly where you are so I can find you. I'll be there in five." Jack hung up and put the phone into his pocket. "There's another two bodies found, within a small distance of each other. Would you mind staying here and finishing this while I go check them out and bring them back here? Tell me if you find anything important." Without waiting for a response, he rushed up the slope out of the autopsy room and towards his office. He grabbed his coat, said goodbye to Ianto and was out of the doors in a flash, the sirens sounding as always.

Owen looked down at the body, sighed and raised his eyebrows, and continued operating on the body. It didn't bother him; it wasn't the first time that Jack had left him alone in the autopsy room with a corpse.


End file.
